(S2) Episode 1: Caves
by J. David Reed
Summary: As the Doctor tries to relax after a stressful few adventures, he finds himself stumbling along a mystery involving a cave that no-one has ever left, and a small orb that he can't quite understand. As he discovers the secrets of the caves and the deserted moon it rests on, he finds a link to his past he never saw coming. Episode 1 of a second short series.
1. Chapter 1: The Tourist

'Now, what's this supposed to be?' the Doctor whispered to the TARDIS, his TARDIS, as he filtered through old software, giving it some updates and touches that could come in handy.

He held in his hand a small circular ball that glowed with an odd, green light, and he watched it with a certain intrigue and grace with which you would inspect a person for injury after a fall.

'Are you... an energy couplet? A battery? A paperweight?' He turned it over in his hand. 'A bomb? An email?'

He squashed it and he felt the two sides condense, as though they were sliding over a smaller, inside ball. It clicked and he frowned, not understanding. This was a part of the TARDIS's structure he hadn't encountered before.

'What are you?!' he cried, smiling as he sonic-ed it.

It clicked again and a sliding part moved over the inside, and for a second he saw a small cube inside, but it was gone again before he could do anything about it.

'Bloody TimeLord science... can't do anything simple.'

He tried to move it, slide the pieces into a position that would allow him to inspect the cube inside, but to no avail. It was being awkward.

Still with it in-hand, the Doctor made his way back to the console room, giving this curious little orb more attention than he perhaps should have, resulting in him taking two wrong turns and having to circle back.

When back at the console room, the Doctor placed the little orb inside an up-turned fez-like hat he had encountered at a market in the Ylurt system. It did resemble a fez, although it was perhaps a little longer than Earth-made ones, and it didn't have a tassel at the top - instead it had a little rubber bobble that bounced as you walked.

Also, they didn't call it a fez. It was called a Pizza, actually, making the translation a little awry when it came to attempting to order an actual pizza in an Ylurtian food market. Odd place.

The TARDIS, for the moment, was between destinations and just sort-of ambling through the time vortex, giving the Doctor some thinking time whilst he was on his holiday. It was the first time in a while he'd had some time to himself, trying to keep up with everything that was happening. Clara was all through time, saving his back at every turn. Trenzalore was the war-torn scene he'd feared it would be, meaning it was pretty much where he was going to fall.

'The fall of the Eleventh,' Dorian had said, all that time ago. MAybe he was getting closer.

It was strange, it seemed, how many times this body, his eleventh regeneration, had either died or been so close to death that it was a genuine concern. He was almost dead in the Pandorica, he faked his death at Lake Silencio, The Silence wanted him dead to prevent something happening at Trenzalore, even though whatever happened seemed to end with his death anyway.

The Universe was obsessed with him dying.

Well, that's today's self-esteem down the drain. Maybe tomorrow he'd get the hang of it.

He began setting the coordinates for a moon he'd been told about whilst at the market - a tiny thing no bigger than Earth's moon, and with similar gravity to Earth itself, seeing as it was so dense. A thick, heavy red-brown stone made almost all of the moon, through to the core.

According to the nice ice vendor, it was covered in cave systems that, once you enter, you can never leave. It has some sort of hypnotic property, he had told him. Anyone who looks into the cave entrance feels the urge to go inside and explore, but once they lose the light they are lost forever.

The story had interested the Doctor, even though he was looking for some quiet time alone, and he intended to go there and investigate the hypnotic caves of a moon called Gug.

But, then he got distracted by an alert telling him there was a little malfunction somewhere in the software, and he'd started updating and re-inventing the whole thing, and then he found that little orb. A little orb with a little cube inside that made equally little sense.

He picked up the orb as the TARDIS began moving off towards Gug, throwing it into the air, testing it's weight.

He'd never seen anything like it. The sides could slide, but only in certain directions, and those directions seemed to be changed at random. It had Gallifreyan symbols on some of the sides, but seeing as they overlapped it was difficult to try and read, but he did manage to catch two words: home and contain. Helpful.

Pocketing the little orb as it glowed and ebbed, he landed the TARDIS onto the rocky terrain of Gug's only populated area - Gugland. It was mainly a tourist attraction, though the outlawing of anyone actually going within seeing distance of any cave meant that interest had slowly died down over the years. It was now desolate and quiet, the soft wind was warm in the light of their Sun, Gus, and he knew that it was unlikely he would run into anyone else.

As he explored the ex-tourist town of Gugland, he came to the sudden realisation that he had become what he despised most. The one thing he had always been, but always in a superior kind of way. V.I.P. But now, now he was just on holiday. He was one of them. A tourist. A space tourist, visiting the universe biggest attractions, occasionally getting into some rough patches.

Yes, his life was perhaps more perilous than the usual holiday-goer, but that was only now and then. Often, in between, it would be markets and rides and food and celebrities.

Oh god.

But, then again, perhaps being a tourist wasn't the worst thing in the world. Or universe... After all, he did get to see things no one else in history would experience. He had been to so many places, so many times. All through history, his face is stamped. All eleven of them.

Perhaps that's why the universe keeps trying to get rid of him: it's grown sick of him.

Despite how his touring habits might disgust him, the Doctor continued to wander around Gugland, stumbling across a building that seemed to be some sort of information... place.

Moving inside, the Doctor found a leaflet that showed a single picture of the most famous cave - the one people so often gave themselves to. It showed the rusted mound of earth that shaped the cave, which, according to the leaflet, was about eight feet tall. It showed the fence in front of it, warding away people who are looking to be engulfed by this mysterious entity.

The mouth of the cave itself was indeed hypnotic. Even here, through the picture, the Doctor felt a strong need to climb inside and walk until his feet bled.

It was an odd feeling, to be invited by a photograph, but he knew what was going on. He knew that it was a property of the cave, somehow. He was completely able to resist it's pull, even feeling slightly repelled by the thought of it taking so many lives.

He searched the leaflet, but it didn't give a number of how many people had been lost inside before they had set up these posts.

Apparently, there used to be live guards watching the mouth of the cave to make sure people didn't walk in, but the guards kept walking in too, so that was an abandoned idea.

He heard a beep from his pocket.

Pulling out the orb, it's shifting surface pulled back, almost on it's own, and revealed to the Doctor the small cube inside. It was tiny - luminescent white and hovering in the centre of the odd orb.

It began to vibrate violently, shaking in his hands until he covered the cube up, pushing the sides of the orb back into their stubborn places.

'So you were a bomb!'' the Doctor said, smiling a concerned smile. 'Called it.'

But why?

What was it here for? It was a mysterious piece of TimeLord tech that seemed to be an explosive, planted in his TARDIS. What the hell could be the purpose of that?

And why had it activated here and now? On Gug? Was it because he'd found it, because he took it out of the TARDIS?

Maybe that was it.

Tightly grasping the small thing, he dashed back to the TARDIS, putting the orb back inside the fez/pizza, and took that to a bomb-shelter room he'd installed a while ago. He assumed it would have the same effect if the explosion was inside as out?

He had to hope so.


	2. Chapter 2: Reckless and Stupid

Having the orb inside his bomb-shelter made the Doctor feel only slightly more confident, as he had no idea whether it was going to explode or not. It might be a prison for some incredibly dangerous energy, or some creature that would engulf the universe as we know it. It could just be a vibration ball, though the thought of what people would use one of those as made him shudder.

He found some rope on a reel, from a room he didn't often use in the TARDIS, and that old exploration suit he still had - the red one with the yellow helmet. Putting it on, he went back to that impossible little rock he and Rose had found themselves on all that time ago. It felt like millenia ago to him. In fact, it was only centuries.

The TimeLord made his way back out of the TARDIS and out to the edge of the 'safety zone' of Gug, where there was a great fence that held him back from visual contact with the cave.

'So that's where we're going, eh?' eh smiled, grasping the rope and tying himself by the waist. He pull put down the reel and activated the clamp at the bottom, fixing it to the earth underneath. It wasn't going anywhere. 'Good. Excellent.'

Next for the fence. It was an easy break - the sonic screwdriver was able to fix wiring just as easily as it could temporarily break it. He cut himself a Doctor-shaped hole in the fence and stepped through, rope turning in the reel. He tested the 'stop' button on the belt loop he had attached to the suit, feeling the rope fix. He leaned forwards, testing it's strength, and was pleased to feel it hold him up effortlessly.

Taking the reel off 'stop', he made his way steadily out into the orange waste.

The desert was long and, well, deserted. There was no sign of life, just dirt. Dirt and heat. The sun, Gus, was beating down on the solitary and temporary inhabitant of Gug with zeal, making him feel like the mouth of the cave he approached was not only inviting, but a need fr survival.

The shade was tempting and the heat made his mind susceptible to the faint hypnotic vibes he felt emanating from Gug's famous caves. It was pulling him in, and he was going to let it.

But, unlike his predecessors, the Doctor was prepared.

The mouth was only a few metres away now, and the suit had started to feel even more uncomfortable than usual, heavy on his body under the heat of Gus. The Doctor stopped, staring into it and inspecting the rock surrounding it. Something felt off about this place. Fake. Familiar. He couldn't put his finger on it.

It felt like he was staring into hell. Or an actual mouth. It felt final. But, with that nagging feeling in his head wanted to find out why it was here. Why this simple little hole on the face of a moon had claimed not only the curiosity, but also the lives, of so many. What was it about this place that was so special?

Moving closer still, the Doctor was acutely aware of the pull. Something wanted to pull him inside.

'I'm supposed to be stopping this sort of thing,' he whined as he took a step out of the heat and into the shade of the cave.

The coolness of it was exquisite, but aside from that everything else seemed fine. He felt no change in his body, nor mind. He was sane, in control of his actions.

But he wasn't supposed to get lost yet. It was once you had lost the light behind you, right? Once that lonely soul had left the light of the desert, then they would never return.

The Doctor contemplated, for a moment, going back. Checking everything was alright. There was no real rush, after all. No person in danger that hadn't already got hurt. There was no incentive here. It was just... travelling. Seeing a curiosity of reality that had never been explained. He could so easily go back, get some equipment that would let him measure different things, like feedback, energy levels, electro magnetic pull. It would be simple.

So why was he not?

Why was he still walking into the darkness that would surely devour him?

Because curiosity killed the cat, that's why. And if the Doctor was anything, it was curious.

He looked behind him, and there was still a very large ball of light representing the entrance, white and unforgiving desert light. The rope flexed when he tugged on it, meaning he was still attached to the reel, which he could activate to pull him back at any time he wanted. He was safe. Completely safe. Right?

He moved forwards, always looking back to check the light. It was a straight line, and the little light on his helmet let him see that the insides of the cave were as rocky as the outside. Eventually the light behind fell smaller and smaller, until he knew that as soon as he took another step he would be devoured by the darkness.

Again he contemplated going back. It would be easy, he told himself.

'Why do I never just do the smart thing to start with?' he asked himself. 'This is so very, very stupid, Doctor.'

He took the step, almost feeling the light fall off him.

It was so silent.

The torch kept him alight, but he realised that if he started to walk back towards where the mouth of the cave had been, it was just more cave. More rock. No light. No sun. That's why no one had ever got out. It shuts behind you.

He was alone now. Shut off from- hold on.

He tugged on the rope at his waist and felt it, limp. It came to his as he pulled it lightly, and eventually the torn end reached him. It wasn't frayed, however. It was clean, like it had been sliced at the mouth of the cave.

He let the rope fall to the rocky floor, losing it from his waist, and continued down the cave path before him.

Darkness seemed to seep in, crowding around him, like it was watching. hunting him. He took his sonic screwdriver out of a small pocket of the suit and took a scan of the cave wall, finding that it was just about as rocky as it looked- wait...

It flickered. Not the wall, the reading.

'What was that?' he asked the small device, cautiously scanning for air levels. Breathable.

Removing his helmet, the Doctor took a closer look at the wall. There must be something about this place. Something wrong with it. Something causing everything, the missing people, the closing mouth, the deserted town.

He scanned it again, and, again, the findings flickered for a second, a blip in the signal.

'That! What was that?!' he moved the screwdriver, inspecting it. There was no fault. 'What are you?!'

'Hello?' he heard.

His attention was skewed immediately. Who cared about a wall? There was someone down here. Close.

'Hello?!' the Doctor yelled. 'Hello? I'm the Doctor! Here to help!'

There was a shuffle, off in the darkness. He directed his torch in the direction he thought he could hear it coming from, but it was far too dark to see much.

'I need... help me, please,' came the voice. It sounded male, young. Possibly human, but that'd just be the translator working it's magic.

The Doctor started running, bolting further into the cave. Was it possible for someone to survive? He hadn't thought to check when the last person was lost. he wasn't even sure there was a record.

This whole this was reckless and stupid, and he knew it, but something was going on, and maybe there was a survivor.


	3. Chapter 3: A Survivor

'Help me please,' the voice called to him. The Doctor sprinted after it, focusing on the sound of the voice, even if it didn't sound particularly scared. In fact, it sounded only a little worried. Irked.

The voice always sounded close, but not near, if that made sense. It was like there was a person round the next corner, but the corner never came. Just more of the wall.

Eventually the Doctor slowed to a trot, unable to keep up the pace. Still, he could hear shuffling, some muttering, almost at his ear but nowhere to be seen.

Of course, it was pitch-black aside from the green glow of his screwdriver, so he couldn't tell if something was there or not. for all he knew, there could be Angels surrounding him, waiting for him, watching and enjoying his obliviousness to them. Or, as always, there could be something new and equally terrifying as the Angels, somewhere down in the dark.

He kept moving forward, aiming for the sounds that seemed to be at his sides. It had moved away from cries of words now, he noticed. No more 'help me', just moans of, it seemed, loneliness. Whoever was down here must have been down here a while.

The Doctor suddenly started to think logically, how would someone survive down here? There's only so much time a person can last without food or water before they die, and there didn't seem to be any sustenance of any kind down here. That meant whoever was down here had been here a while, but not too long. With supplies, they maybe last a few weeks down here. Without, a few days. Maybe.

'Hello?' the Doctor asked the air. There was a response, from somewhere undefinable, of a louder moan than before.

The Doctor turned to his side, looking for a wall to get his bearings, but he had seemed to have reached a clearing, which wasn't good. For all he knew, he was at a dead-end, and he wouldn't know it. It could close of behind him, shutting him inside a rocky tomb. This could be it.

He read somewhere that if you live forever, the chances of you becoming trapped in an inescapable place rocket, because when you live forever you experience everything, especially with a time machine. Maybe his time was now.

He decided that the best way to go was forward, but he did so with a gulp and a closed eye, immediately checking that the doorway behind him hadn't closed off. It hadn't. He was good.

As the cave stretched on and on, he started to think that this was an incredibly bad idea. No one had ever got out of here, why did he think he was any different? That ego was going to be the death of him.

Soon, however, he started to see and odd blue light somewhere ahead. He could hear those sounds, too, as well as some odd throbbing-type noise. The Doctor found a wall to his left, and scanned it again, started where he had earlier, and still found the reading was flickering.

'Okay, what is that?' He knew it wasn't a mistake - something was interfereing with his screwdriver. There were only a few things that had the strength to do that, wood included.

He headed in the direction of the blue light, silently computing what the likeliness of this being a trap was. And, at that, how likely it was that the trap had something to do with the interference. High, he found. Very, really very high.

'Anyone there?' he called out, now a little more tense and cautious.

'Maybe,' someone replied. Great. Cryptic calls in the dark. Definitely a trap.

'Maybe?' he responded, smiling a little. Best to be optimistic. Ever the optimist. 'Why maybe?'

'Because I'm not sure anymore,' said the voice.

The Doctor headed towards the light, which, by the way, is never a good idea. Symbolically speaking, he was heading somewhere he wasn't going to like.

From all his experience, the Doctor had, at some point, concluded that there must be a God somewhere up there, amongst the cosmos, watching everything and flowing through every little creature it held. And it had a stupid, immature sense of humour that lead to him receiving the most convoluted, backwards plotlines he could think up. Everything had a point, a plot pusher, an expansion and a development.

And, if that meant that 'God' was just a writer with an offbeat sense of humour and a slightly inflated ego, this meant that 'heading towards the light' was spelling of certain doom, or of great untold riches and pleasantness.

Of course, when the Doctor saw what was generating the bright, blue light now close enough to see, he realised it could be both. Doom and riches. Darkness and light. Altogether, in the one place that gave his life as much balance as it deserved.

A TARDIS.

Before him stood the bright, curling column of moving light and silent power, kept within the six-segment console in a form he hadn't seen before - some type of rocky format. It was as though the column was a huge crystal, bursting from the earth and leading out through the ceiling. The sounds he heard earlier had become more pronounced - groaning sounds, creaking with age.

But it was a TARDIS. An actual TARDIS. Living, down here, in the middle of nowhere.

'This is impossible...' he breathed, walking towards the crystal pillar of light. It glimmered as he approached, as though recognising him, bouncing his image around the sides of the blue construct, dancing with him in light.

'You see it?' came the voice he had heard.

The Doctor didn't turn to look at who it was. He didn't care. Nothing mattered. This was a TARDIS. That meant TimeLords... maybe someone crashed. This place, it was a tomb. Nothing can escape. They never came to find him because they couldn't. The TARDIS went into lockdown.

The entire cave system, it was corridors, corrupted by time... People had died here.

'I see it,' he eventually responded.

'I'm not mad?'

'You're not mad.' He snapped himself out of it, shaking his head and looking away. It was hypnotising. What the hell did this mean? Another TARDIS, just out here. Waiting. Hidden and broken.

He decided to look, instead, at whoever was talking to him. It was a small, hunched-over boy who looked about 18, with long, matted hair and a small smile on his face.

'I'm not mad,' he said, looking at the floor. 'But-' he suddenly started to look incredibly scared. 'That means- Oh, no, nononono...'

'What, what is it? What does it mean?' the doctor started asking this boy.

'That means they're coming,' he said, the fear around him palpable. He trusted the Doctor instantly, as though he had never seen another person. 'This,' he thrust a small box with a green sigil the Doctor didn't recognise into the Doctor's waist. 'Keep it away from them.'

'Who?'

'Take me out?' the boy asked. 'Can you take me out of here?'

'I...' the Doctor genuinely didn't know. He had no idea if he could get out. Although, now he knew this was a TARDIS, albeit a faulty one, he knew he could navigate it a little better. This wasn't his TARDIS, so it wasn't broadcasting information into him, but it was this person's... was this boy like him? A survivor?

'Just tell me,' the Doctor said, helping the boy up in agreement to get him out. 'Are you a TimeLord?'

'I don't know...' he said, shaking his head. 'I don't know what I am or who I am or who you are but you are important. You and that box are connected, I know it. I feel it.'

'Right,' the Doctor nodded, unsure of where to go from there. Apparently he's connected to a box. Excellent.


	4. Chapter 4: More To It

He took the box, lifting it high and inspecting every aspect of it. 'So... what's inside it?'

'Don't drop it,' said the boy. 'Never open it.'

'Never?' he asked, still looking. 'Looks Time Lord-y. If you came from the Time War, then I guess that makes this dangerous.'

'Dangerous... yes...' the boy shook his head, angry at himself. 'I can't remember...'

'It's okay, it's fine... what's your name?'

'I don't... ow, I don't know... it hurts...'

'Hey, hey hey,' the Doctor dropped to him, joining the boy on the floor. 'It's okay. We need to focus on getting out of here, yeah?'

'Yeah.'

'Okay. Dangerous box, things coming for us and a possible TimeLord in a faulty TARDIS... I can work with this.'

The boy remained silent, watching the Doctor thoughtfully as he bounced up, leaving the box on the floor. He circled the crystal pillar, bathing in the blue light and inspecting the console, making some sense of the controls. It didn't help that every time the TARDIS regenerated, it's control panel swapped around, almost seeming to avoid being understood for too long. Every time he thought he had a feel for it, either he would change or it would.

'Okay, okay I think I can work this,' he said scanning the console. 'Screwdriver says it's not the console that's faulty.'

'Screwdriver?'

'It's sonic!'

'Why?'

'Because... because I said so.'

'Why do you say so?' the boy asked, suddenly challenging him. 'Why is it your place to say so? What's your authority?!' he screamed, the sound echoing around the huge room, surrounding them. He fell silent, leaving the Doctor to his deductions, both about the TARDIS and about the boy.

Trauma, he thought. PTSD, probably from the Time War. Which means, well a lot of things. A Way out. A leak. Or a different war... this could have been here for hundreds of years, the TARDIS keeping him alive. The Doctor really didn't like that thought, but he couldn't be sure of anything. It was impossible, anyway. The Time War was Timelocked - the operative bit being 'locked'. No way in or out. Sealed away, in a shameful corner of reality.

It scared him to think, though. What if...

'Not the console,' the Doctor said, continuing his earlier train of thought. 'Then what?'

'Where am I?'

'It's a ship,' he said. 'One of the greatest ships ever. Not as good as mine, and a little bit broken, but it's still pretty damn impressive.'

'A ship... like a boat?'

'A space-boat, yes.'

'Space... planets and stars. Endless black-'

'And endless life,' the Doctor said, smiling to him. He helped the boy to his feet, holding the box and his screwdriver in his other hand. 'Endless, wonderful life. Do you want to see it?'

He nodded, but that small moment of light was snuffed out by a sound. A shuffle.

The boy jumped at the sound, recognising it and drawing back in terror. 'Here...' he said, quivering. 'Always here.'

'Hello?' the Doctor called out.

Nothing.

Nothing but the darkness, and the noise. Like shifting feet on the dirt, dragging the tiny stones built by the TARDIS matrix.

'You know,' he said to the boy. 'It wasn't too long ago I had a look down into my own TARDIS's matrix. The very core, where there's a black hole consuming a star.'

'What's your point?' the boy snapped, scared like hell.

'My point is that, even though a TARDIS can change it's desktop theme, it's hardware is still the same. We could have a root around, see what's wrong.'

'How would that help?'

'Well, you wanna stay here and wait for... whatever's out there?'

'They don't come into the light. I found light, I'm staying in it.'

'Lights! Yes!' the Doctor pointed his screwdriver upwards, and the whole cave burst into bright, blue light. Orbs of crystal clarity, illuminating the rocky interior, hung from the ceiling, bursting with colour, casting shadow in ever corner.

The sound of feet, rushing down the cave and into small, hidden, dark passages could be heard, but neither the Doctor nor the boy could see.

'You turned on the lights!' the boy smiled. 'I can see it... where are we?'

'It's a TARDIS, the greatest ship in the universe. Nearly.'

'So,' he said, 'what's the plan?'

'You want a plan, now?'

'No... yes. I don't want anything. I need out. Out of here. Get me out. What's your name?'

'The Doctor, I told you... I'm sure I did.'

'I don't remember.'

'No... no you don't. Tell me, where are we?'

'A cave?'

'And when did you get here?'

'I don't know. As long as I remember.'

'When did I get here?'

'As long as I can remember.'

'Memory loss. On-going memory loss.' The Doctor took the box from him and held it up. 'What is this?'

'Important,' the boy said, as though remembering a fact he had been told to remember. 'Very. Don't open it. Not yet.'

'Yes, I know, don't worry.'

There was a sound somewhere in the cave.

'Are they coming back?' the boy asked, terrified suddenly.

'Are what coming back?'

'I don't know. Them. My head is hurting, is that right?' he said, shaking his head. He hit his own temple, dazing himself slightly. The Doctor had to grab his wrist to prevent him doing it again, even when the boy fought and fought against him.

'You're okay, you're okay,' the Doctor said, thinking. Did he have memory-loss? He couldn't remember telling this boy his name, but this teenager couldn't remember him arriving at all. The TARDIS was slightly psychic, after all. Maybe those sounds in the dark weren't the only villain around.

Perhaps there was more to it.


	5. Chapter 5: Simuss

'Come on,' the Doctor said, urging the boy to move. Now, in the light, the area seemed fairly safe, if indeed the things in the dark stuck to the shadows. Sure enough, as he pulled up the boy, he stuck to the light, never straying anywhere near a shadow, whether it be cast by a small passageway or just a spot where the light couldn't quite reach.

The boy moved with him, still occasionally punishing himself for something, hitting and biting himself.

They began down a corridor deeper into this TARDIS, it's cave walls claustrophobic and all bizarrely similar, giving the boy no way of keeping up with where they were headed down the twists and turns of the caves, moving deeper and deeper down.

After a little while, the lights started to flicker. The boy noticed instantly, his paranoia of the dark kicking in. The Doctor, however, was too busy building a mental map - storing every turn, the distances, the doorways they passed but never entered. He was working out the layout. Guessing, a lot, but working it all out.

It was a structure similar to most TARDIS ships - confusing but regular. He wanted to get to somewhere there was a fault, so he scanned every inch of the walls as they passed them, zeroing in on the problem. The reason this place had swallowed so many souls.

After darting round corners, holding back the boy's arms and avoiding anything that wasn't fully lit, the lights started to demand attention.

One cut out directly above the young boy, scaring him half to death.

At first the Doctor tried to ignore it, and he began to walk away.

'I know you,' came a voice.

The boy started to cry.

It had come from the shadow. The entire corridor behind them had shut down, dipped in black paint. Ahead of them, however, was perfectly clear.

'The TARDIS is psychic,' the Doctor reasoned. 'It can play with your head. If it's faulty, then maybe it's making you see monsters where there aren't any.'

'But I know you,' said the shadow. 'Doctor.'

'Doctor?' the boy said. 'That's your name... isn't it? It knows you?!'

'Keep walking,' the Doctor said, trying to make it sound like it wasn't an order. 'We'll find the fault.'

'The fault?' said the shadow, mocking him. 'The only fault here is life, Doctor.'

'Life?' he asked, looking directly into the shadow. He could almost see a face, hidden behind the cloak of darkness. The voice wasn't male or female, threatening or kind. It was just there. Everywhere. 'What do you know of life.'

He could feel the shadow smiling at him.

'I know it ends.'

'You know, my TARDIS said the exact same thing,' he said, making conversation. If he could get it to talk, he might learn something about these shadows. Talking shadows. Deja Vu. 'Only, she said it was sad. Life ending was sad.'

'I am not a TARDIS,' said the shadow. 'I am the shadow within.'

'You are alive, then?'

'Life is a fault.'

'And you are life,' said the Doctor. 'You're alive. You're the fault. A cancer, maybe? Using this place as an easy way to capture prey.'

'You are correct.'

'No I'm not,' said the Doctor, smiling. 'You just wanted me to believe anything I said. Make up my own lie. Truth is, you don't know what you are, because it hasn't told you. You are the TARDIS. This cave-like, living TARDIS created you. I don't know why it did. I don't know if there is a reason. But I do know one thing, and that's that there is something down here. In this ship. Eating away. And I'm going to fix it, because that's who I am. I'm the Doctor. Handyman of the Universe.'

'We are not in your Universe.'

The Doctor's face dropped.

Even the boy stopped to watch. Every motion, every twitch at the corner of his mouth was a new, exciting thought. A new connection. Such a magnificent brain of his, but only now was he clicking on.

'That's why you turned out the lights,' he said, looking at the shadows. 'To shut us out. Away.'

'You were so close, Doctor.'

'What is it talking about?' the boy whimpered, taking that box from the Doctor. He clutched it close, like a security blanket.

'We're not in the universe anymore. The TARDIS, it exists in two separate dimensions. The door is the bridge between them. That's where the fault is. Back in the console room.'

'But there wasn't a door,' the boy said.

'No, but there was a cave. A cave that let you in, but not out. That was the doorway. It's cracked, broken. I could fix it, but now...'

The shadow smiled at him again. He felt it. 'Now the lights are out. You would have to pass through me, and while you might, Doctor, your young friend would never. Scared, boy?'

The boy ignored it, standing as tall as he could against the shadow, staring into the mirage of a face, the twists of darkness that echoed hands, arms, bodiliness. The haunting image of the pitch-black figure was approached by this paranoid, helpless teenager, and it was impressed.

'Yes,' said the boy. 'I am scared.' He swallowed. 'But I'm brave. I think. I don't know. You stole my memories from my head. You took them from me.'

'Oh no, boy,' it said, mocking again. 'You took them yourself.'

'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!' he exploded, arms thrown out, lashing through the shadows, scratching at them. 'What do you mean?!'

'Your memories are not mine to steal,' it said, as the lights began to turn back on, revealing the corridor, or cave, rather, that they had followed down here.

But then, the shadows did something the Doctor could not do. It did something the boy couldn't do. Something this cave seemed to have swallowed along with all those poor souls. It gave the boy a name.

'Simuss.'

It stopped him in his tracks. Simuss. He knew that name. It was his. He couldn't remember being given it, or when anybody had ever used it but the shadow.

But it was his.

Simuss.

'That's my name,' he said, just as the shadow evaporated, leaving the empty, light corridor open to them.

'Come on,' said the Doctor, pushing him on. They had a door to fix and a universe to return to.

'Doctor,' Simuss said, stopping him. The Doctor looked back and saw him, static in his spot, staring at his own hands. 'What am I?'

He had rather hoped that hearing his name might have triggered some kind of memory leading to his lineage. Perhaps not.

He had a brainwave, however.

The Doctor bounced up to him, tearing out from his bigger-on-the-inside pockets a dark blue stethoscope.

Putting it to Simuss' chest, he heard the beating of a heart. Excellent.

He slid the stethoscope to the boy's right...


	6. Chapter 6: Admiral Ackbar

There it was.

A second heartbeat.

The rhythm of time, pumping through this boy's veins, coursing through him.

The Doctor looked up to Simuss. He had no idea. Blank face, expectant eyes and quivering mouth. He needed to know. He had to.

But the Doctor couldn't find any words. He could barely keep his lip from shaking.

Moving the stethoscope away from the boy's chest, he looked Simuss directly in the eye and, with grace and nobility, and a desperate eagerness, took the boy in his arms, lifting him off the floor.

'You're a Time Lord, Simuss. You're a...' he couldn't say it again.

It was as though a silent, heavy lift that had been stretching his heart strings was starting to lift, slowly, more so with every passing moment. Every thought he laid onto it the weight alleviated.

This boy was in a TARDIS, stuck outside the Universe. That's why he had never been felt, no other Time Lord had ever been found. Locked away. Hidden from reality, stuck in this cave.

'Time Lord?' Simuss asked. 'That sounds important...' he didn't sound happy, nor was he upset. He didn't sound like anything.

'Like me. Time Lord, like me.'

'You? The Doctor. Handyman of the universe. And we just happened to stumble across each other?'

The Doctor thought back, to what had lead him here.

He'd heard about this place just on his travels. It was nothing. He came here on a whim. A tourist trip. Nothing.

The chances of him having passed by this place and gone on to a different attraction where infinite. This shouldn't have happened, yet it had. He'd found another.

He hugged Simuss, breathing in the air around him. This TARDIS, it would have been on Gallifrey at some point. That boy would have touched the Citadel, walked its halls, obeyed its rules. He held him tight, in the bright hall which they were supposed to be following.

The Doctor stood with new authority, no longer lost. He was in control. His shoulders rolled as he released Simuss and stared down the corridor, taking a long, deep breath and letting a smile fall across his face.

'Want to ask you what happened,' he said to Simuss. 'I wish I could ask you how you got here, if this is your TARDIS or someone elses. If there were others. TARDIS ships were meant for several pilots, after all. I want to ask you everything you know, but I can't. Not yet.'

'I couldn't tell you,' Simuss said. 'I don't remember.'

'And we'll figure out why not in a little while, okay?'

'Alright.'

'For now, we get out.'

'What about the shadows?'

'We go the hell through them, Simuss. We fix this TARDIS. A little do-er-up-er and she'll be good as new. The shadows are threats, nothing more. Just stupid, pathetic threats that the TARDIS is setting up against us in an attempt to keep us here.'

'Why?'

'I have no idea. I've stopped caring. I just want to get out. Chances are we'll find out at some point what the reason is that this TARDIS wants us to stay. Likely there's a damn good reason, too.'

'Where do we go after we leave?'

'We'll figure that out when we get there, Sim!'

And with that, the Doctor burst into a full-on sprint, chasing the corridors, back-tracking every twist and turn, every lift and dip in the path, following that map he had so easily made earlier, for convenience sake. Simuss kept up, his legs able to take the strain of shifting dirt under each step and keeping up the pace for whatever distance he had to until the Doctor stopped, paused, and thought.

Simuss saw, however, in the Doctor eyes that there was more. Something else plaguing him. Hell, he'd only met him ten minutes ago, but he was already helping in ways he could have never have hoped for alone. how long had he spent in the darkness, feeling the shadows shifting around him, hearing lonely souls wander into the pitch black caves and fall to hunger, thirst, loneliness.

That was it, he realised.

That was what was plaguing the Doctor.

That was the reason he had been lifted off his feet, why his eyes were glistening with hope and why he had burst into confidence and energy at one little revelation. He was alone, truly alone. And Simuss had changed that.

Even so, there must be more. Something he wasn't being told. This mad, sprinting man didn't seem the type to just leave. To figure out something halfway, then find a present and just run off with it. From what he'd seen, Simuss knew this much - the Doctor wanted to help. But to what extent? Would he just be happy with getting him out and leaving, or would he come back to sort out this ship? Would he go even further, and try to figure out _why_ the TARDIS was trying to hold them in, and then had suddenly given them a clear track back to where they wanted to be?

'Doctor,' Simuss said as they ran, knowing it was something he should bring up. Perhaps the Doctor was slightly lost in the happy fuzz of finding kin. 'Why did the shadow give us a way back?'

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, slapped in the face by this sudden revelation. It was ridiculous, he thought, that he hadn't thought of it. He'd been distracted, of course, but still. Stupid, stupid stupid.

And now he had no clear direction.

The Doctor turned on the spot, watching the corridors for signs of malicious shadows creeping up on them, but there was nothing. No change. No lights going out. Nothing.

They continued on, slowly now, with the Doctor still silent.

Simuss wondered why this was. Maybe the Doctor was better at thinking when he was silent. Either that or he was trying not to think at all, trying not to over-complicate it. If he really was as lonely as Simuss thought, then maybe he just wanted to revel in this moment. To feel brotherhood and only brotherhood. No panic, no suspicion, no off-feeling that you get in your stomach when something happens but your brain hasn't quite figured out what it is yet.

Funny, really. Simuss had that feeling at the exact moment he thought about what having that feeling meant.

It meant that this was a trap. It was all a trap.

Of course the Doctor, still with a stupid smile, attempting to keep the atmosphere light said 'It's a trap!' in an odd, sort-of gurgling voice.

'What?' Simuss just stared at him.

'It's my best Admiral Ackbar,' the Doctor said, genuinely defensive. 'You don't think it's any good, do you. And I've been working on it for-'

The lights went out.


	7. Chapter 7: Rude

'Ah,' the Doctor said. 'This is an issue.'

'And issue?' Simuss' voice was high, on the edge of panicking. He was doing a rather incredible job of keeping it together, the Doctor realised. He had spent so long hiding from the shadows.

He instantly started to sonic upwards, aiming at some lights above, trying to lock on. Arms swinging, he couldn't find anything in the dark. He damned himself for not keeping a closer eye on where the lights were exactly - he couldn't even remember if they were definitely above them.

'Doctor?' Simuss called for him, sounding as though he had shrunk to the floor.

The Doctor crouched to be as close to him as possible. He didn't want to lose this boy - not after the amount of people who had been lost down here.

'Have you any idea what he is?' the shadows asked, their voices dark and full of knowledge, despite asking questions. 'Simuss, do you know what this man is?'

'The Doctor,' he said, as though he were answering a teacher in a classroom. 'He's the Doctor.'

'He's a killer,' it said. 'He's a genocidal, lonely God who picks up poor humans and drops them when he's sucked them dry. Am I right, Doctor?'

'Good thing I'm not human,' Simuss said.

It felt wrong, what happened after that moment.

The whole room burst back into light, and the sound of shuffling feet leaving filled their ears again. The shadows were real, living creatures. Physical, not spectral. That must mean something.

'Why do I feel like it wanted us to tell it that?' the Doctor said out loud, not really expecting Simuss to answer.

'Because they were cleverer than us,' he answered. 'They twisted me into giving them a snippet of information I shouldn't have.'

'But why. Why give us a way back here?'

'Maybe... I don't know.'

'Maybe what?'

'Nothing. Really, nothing. I said 'maybe' hoping an idea would come to me, Doctor, because I'm really scared and probably mentally compromised. I have memories loss and I'm not human even though I feel like I should be. I'm freaking out.'

'Plus, there are shadows in an alien ship that, according to everything I know and believe, can't exist.'

'Why not?'

The Doctor stopped. Would he have to tell Simuss about the War? Was that something he could do. Simuss, being here, must have been from before the Time War began, meaning he has no idea what happened. How would he react?

He remembered telling the Master - how he'd gone into denial, and then, later, had attempted to bring Gallifrey itself back. Was it smart to do that to another person? To give them their identity and their solitude back-to-back.

'Because they were all destroyed, Simuss,' he said. 'In a war. A Time War.'

This was it, he was going to tell this boy everything. He had to.

Simuss looked barely 18, but for a Time lord that could be 1800. Maybe he would be able to cope. Maybe he'd have the strength.

'A Time War?' he asked, innocently.

'Hell.' They sat together, in the new light. 'Burning, stinking hell.' He took a deep breath, his brow low over his eyes and his hair hanging, devoid of it's usual bounce from sweat. 'I ended it,' he said. 'I ended the whole thing.'

'How did you do it?'

'By killing everyone. Every Time lord. Me and you, we're the last. No one else. Well, a woman named River is kind-of Time lord, but that's about it.'

'River?'

'River Song. Professor River song. Archeologist. She died. I watched. Everyone seems to do that, but hey, everything ends. That's how the universe works, isn't it. Everything dies. And that's good, I suppose.'

'But you're alive,' Simuss said, somewhere between being doubtful and reassuring. 'Surely that counts for something?'

'I try to make it, Sim.' The Doctor took a heavy breath and stood up, helping simuss to his own feet. 'Try to make a difference. Do good. But sometimes I feel like I'm just making things worse.'

'Well, you're helping me. Yesterday I was just in a cave, lost next to a glowing pillar. Without a name or a friend or a species. I was alone, and no there's you.'

'I know the feeling,' the Doctor said with a smile. 'Now, let's get to that console room.'

The two of them followed the rocky cavern to the next corner, where the blue light of the console was starting to become visible again. They followed the tunnel until the rocky surface seemed to start to merge with metal - the two solid materials twisted and twined on the ceiling and down the walls as they approached the crystal pillar in the console room.

The hall-like opening was huge, tall and cold, which echoed with the blue light that illuminated it. Now, however, they saw the shadows in the corner - one of the the corridors heading away from the console was drenched in darkness. The shivers and twitches of shifting darkness that made no sense whatsoever.

It dragged a shiver up the Doctor's spine.

Simuss avoided looking at them directly at all.

'What are you doing here?' the Doctor asked the shadows. He didn't look at them, however. He simply scanned the cave entrance that he had first came through, looking for any signs of it being a doorway.

'Here to help,' it said. 'I have been here for a long while. Observing.'

'Why would you want us out?' the Doctor asked. 'A minute ago you were calling me genocidal. I take offence to that, plus it kind of implies you don't like me. Rude, by the way. Very rude.'

'I want out of this prison.'

'For what purpose?'

'Freedom.'

'Well, you were all 'the only fault is life' - what was that all about?'

'Truth. The only fault is life, but it is not my place to determine how people live. Life is so easily misspent, especially down here. Within these caves, we might as well be dead.'

'What would you do?'

'Travel. Watch the universe in all it's perfections. In all it's faults.'

'Is this a trap?' Simuss asked. 'Are you trying to talk us into releasing you?'

'Release?' it said, actually sounding offended. 'You make me sound like an animal.'

'You're a creature. A killer.'

'I have not murdered anyone.'

'All those people, all those hopeless, lost people who came into the caves. What happened to them?!' Simuss yelled, getting angry again.

The shadows fell silent, not wanting to answer. Perhaps they were killers.

'Help us,' the Doctor said. 'Then, and only then, do we discuss you getting-'

'No,' Simuss said, killing the Doctor's sentence. 'It tells us everything. What happened to them. What happened to me. What is in this box?'

He held it up and the shadows seemed to hide away, shifting back.

'What is it?' he demanded.


	8. Chapter 8: Spring the Lock

'What's in the box?!' Simuss screamed, demanding an answer. His eyes ere wide and accusing, searching for some twist, some sign from the shadows.

'Would rather know what that is, or where they went?' the shadows asked, turning the tide. It's ambiguous, androgynous voice had an authority that made it difficult for Simuss to hold his own, but he tried. He held.

'Fine,' he said. 'First, you tell us where they went. What happened to them. What you did-'

'We did nothing!' it roared. 'We did nothing to them. We watched you become more... this place, the Doctor calls it a TARDIS, it is what attacked them. You.'

'Me?' Simuss was quiet now, no longer in a yelling match. He was thinking. He wanted all the answers. For so long, he was in the dark, hopeless. Now the Doctor had shown him light, he was greedy for it and he didn't care. He wanted to know. 'How do you know the Doctor's name?'

'It is one of three things we were born knowing,' it said. 'The first was to find the Doctor. His name rang in our ears before we had opened our eyes. Doctor. We knew you upon sight regardless of your changing face.'

'Yes, well, I have a very definitive persona,' he said with a perfectly straight face.

'What was the second?' Simuss ordered.

'The box. It should not be opened, not until the right time. It is not ready yet. It needs to know what will happen when the TARDIS attacks those who wander into it.'

'What's inside?'

'We don't know,' it said, honestly. 'We only know it is not ready yet.'

'When will it be ready?' the Doctor asked.

'Once it has seen all it need to.'

'Third,' Simuss ordered, wanting to know everything he could about this place. 'What is third?'

'That we are it's eyes,' the shadows said. 'We are, in some way linked to that box. Whatever is inside, it cannot act on it's own. It manipulated this TARDIS to act on it's behalf, taking wanderers and changing them.'

'Any wanderers?' the doctor asked.

'Only humans,' is said, slowly, thinking about it. 'Only ever humans. They seem to be drawn to this place.'

'I was drawn here,' the Doctor said. 'Subtly, but there was always something. Pulling me into the dark. Anyway, if you are it's eyes, what have you seen?'

'What happened?' Simuss asked, softer now. More wary of what the answer could be.

'Humans would wander in, and we would watch them be changed. The TARDIS, it would attack them, and they would emerge. New. A new fear in them, we could feel it, but we never did anything.'

'You're talking as though... oh,' the Doctor nodded, hand closing over his mouth. 'Oh...' he looked at Simuss, a quizzical look. 'Is it possible?'

'Is what possible?' Simuss asked. 'That I'm a Time Lord? Why am I a Time Lord if they were all human. What am I doing here?!'

'You were changed, Simuss,' the shadows said. 'You are human, but you are not.'

'It's called a chameleon arch,' the Doctor said, his voice low. 'I've used one before. Once. To become human. It rewrites your biology, alters every cell, your basic, fundamental physiology changes.'

'Into what?'

'Time Lord.'

Simuss looked at the shadows, which seemed to have shrunken away, ashamed. 'I'm human?' he asked, looking at the Doctor.

'Not right now,' he said. 'For some reason, whatever is in this box was luring in humans and changing them into Time Lords and then... what?'

There was a silence.

'Are you talking to us?' the shadows asked.

'Well, you're the eyes, what happened?' Where did they go, once they had changed in Time Lords what happened?!'

'The lost their memories. They wandered into the dark, after cowering.'

'They went against their fears and walked into the darkness,' the Doctor said, thinking. 'Someone created Time Lords, that's impossible. It is completely not possible. No law of physics would allow it.'

'Why not?' Simuss asked. 'You were human.'

'That's different, going from Time Lord to human is like regression. Humans and Time Lords share lineage, were' like cousin species. We're the older cousin, we came first, so becoming human is like winding forward the clock, pushing evolution in a specific direction within parameters that are set by biology. But going backwards in evolution only ever results in -' He stopped dead. 'Wait... wait, while I was human my consciousness was locked inside a watch. A little fob watch.' The Doctor span to the shadows, accusingly. 'Is there anywhere that their human spirits could have been locked in?'

'The box?' Simuss offered.

'No, the box is the controlling entity. This needs locked up. There would be somewhere else- but no. No there won't.'

'I'm lost,' Simuss said, not following.

'It's clever, annoyingly clever. I could save them, turn them back into humans, turn on the light and fix this door and we'd all be okay. Give them back their memories, their lives. YOur life, Simuss.'

'Why can't you?'

'Because they're in the box. Whatever it is, it locked them in with it. That's why you knew my name, shadows. Whatever is in here, it knows me. It knows I could figure it out. All of this. Figure out that the only way to save them is to let it out. I can't trap it, that would mean trapping the human spirits.'

'What, so whatever did this is in there, with my memories?'

'And countless others, swimming around together.'

'And if you let out my memories, you let out the big bad monster that trapped them in there.'

'Yeah.'

'Why? What's the point in trapping yourself in a box. This is a huge plot, a plan that doesn't make any sense to me.'

'Maybe it didn't choose to be in the box. It found some leakage, a way to control the TARDIS, psychically. It's strong enough mentally to literally create creatures of shadow to do it's bidding. It didn't choose to get in, but it can force me to spring the lock.'

'Will you?' the shadows asked.

'I might have to,' the Doctor said. 'It's the only way to save all those people, somewhere down in the caves. Save their memories.'


	9. Chapter 9: Stained and Tainted

'Do they need their memories?' Simuss asked, his brow furrowed and his arms crossed. He was trying to come up with a suggestion, any suggestion, that might save people without letting out whatever did this to them.

'Do you want yours?' the Doctor asked. 'All those human little experiences. First kiss, first dance, going to school, getting bullied, falling in love. All of that, everything people go through, do you want it back?'

'Of course I do, but do I need it? Is it worth it? Letting out whatever's in there, it could be disastrous. It knows you, Doctor. You and your ship and your life, it knows. That means you've seen it before, but you didn't kill it or stop it. You don't know how it got in there - someone else trapped it. It beat you, and now it's going to get out by beating you again.'

'You assume I haven't got a plan, young Simuss,' the Doctor chimed, inspecting the box in one hand.

'Great! You seem to have done rather well so far, can we get out?'

'Well, now you're assuming I have one,' he said, only half paying attention. He was more interested in the box.

'What, so you don't have a plan?'

'Of course not, who told you I did?'

'You did!'

'No, I said you assumed I didn't. Doesn't mean I do. There are no inscriptions on this thing. Nothing.'

'So?'

'So whoever was trying to hold this thing in new it was powerful. Didn't want it getting out.'

'Would it make a difference?'

'Absolutely. If it's Time Lord, that would explain the TARDIS, but it might not be. This TARDIS might have been used to ship this thing, nothing more. It's an old model, it was probably stolen. Transport, nothing more. Whoever built this didn't want us knowing. The more we know, the stronger we are.'

'And if we're clueless?'

'Then we're powerless.' The Doctor lowered the box from his gaze. 'But we're not clueless.'

'We're not?' the shadows asked.

SImuss and the Doctor both stopped and stared at the shadows, the Doctor sporting a small smile.

'What?'

'Just... you know. Big threat, you're part of the monster. The box is watching us through you, shadows, and yet you're using 'we'?'

'Well, I thought you could help us...'

'I can,' the Doctor said. 'It just might shock you what's best.'

'What's best?' Simuss asked, not taking his eyes off the shadows.

'What's best for us all. For the shadows. For you, Simuss. The people, lost down there.'

'You think they're still down there?'

'We have to hope,' the Doctor said. 'They could have survived without food if they were Time Lord. Bigger reserves. They'd be fine for weeks.'

'But there might have been people down here for months. Years, even.'

'How long has this cave been here?'

'No idea. It was only discovered a few years ago. I suppose people assumed it was always here.'

'See that?' the Doctor asked, pointing directly at Simuss's forehead. 'Did you see that, box?'

'What the hell are you on about?!'

'You, Simuss,' he said, almost accusingly. 'Your memory. You didn't remember your own first name half an hour ago, but now it's all 'a few years ago' and 'people'. You're getting them back. Slowly, but surely.'

'What does that mean?'

'It's incentive,' he said, his eyes shutting. 'It's the box. It's showing that it has the power to give back the memories, giving you snippets of your own life. It's a message.'

'And you're going to do it.'

'Am I? That sounds like a decision, not a question.'

'Just do it, Doctor.'

He held up the box, looking at it with some reservations. It was tough, wood-like to look at, but it felt almost like leather. There was a small latch on the front, with a lime-green gem, round and soft encrusted inside.

He pressed it.

_Click_.

The top flipped over.

For a second, there was nothing.

After that second, a great wave of yellow-white light burst from the contents - streams of it, all coming from separate clock faces inside the box. There must have been at least thirty time-faces, all embedded in the odd wood-leather, pouring out this stained light. It disappeared down the caverns, different streams taking different routes, each searching for it's own host. Looking for their own bodies.

One found Simuss, swallowing his face in a cloud of yellowed light, finding it's way inside through his eyes, ears, nose, mouth. He collapsed to the floor, hitting his head and falling asleep, and yet the light still poured into him. It filled him.

Yet, from the box, there was another shade. A darker, emerald shade of light that echoed the lime green clasp on the box, but it was tainted with black and grey, making it seem dirty. Dirty and old.

The shadows, now behind the Doctor, dispersed, becoming nothing more than black smoke that filtered into the green light as it collected above the box, which had been dropped onto the floor.

It's light clouded that which emanated from the TARDIS console and the yellow light coming from all around. It dominated the space around it, eating it and consuming it. Swallowing it.

It formed a human-like shape above the box once the yellow light had cleared.

Simuss was still asleep, out from his fall.

The green figure seemed to look at them, it's features ghostly and non-specific. It lunged at the Doctor, screamed at him, and then shrouded him in it's fog.

Suddenly there was no more TARDIS.

No more cold.

The air was warm and dry, a breeze hitting him.

The Doctor attempted to open his eyes, but they wouldn't obey him from the light. He waited for his squinting eyes to adjust before even attempting to look around, but he instantly saw Simuss, on the ground next to him, bathing in light.

He could see a few other bodies, all dispersed over the desert.

He noticed the red suit he had left behind at some point. He couldn't really remember taking it off.

He couldn't really remember much of what had happened within the caves.

But he knew something was coming. Something knew him, and he had set it free.

With it's own TARDIS.


End file.
